Currently zoning laws prohibit the keeping of backyard poultry within the city of Auburndale, Florida. This limits the ability of city citizens to keep and raise poultry for egg production to provide for their families. City officials and code enforcement is unwilling to budge on this topic for any reason, causing potential hardship for citizens trying to provide for their families. Especially during these times of economic distress, it is vital that we have options available to us and these limitations are affecting the rights of citizens to provide the most basic of needs to their household.

My suggestion is to allow citizens to keep up to twelve (12) birds at any given time. This will give citizens options to raise food for their household to better support their family's needs. Home raised birds are almost always handled and cared for in a better and more humane manner than commercial birds. This would allow citizens that need or want to produce their own food for financial, health, or ethical reasons the ability to do so. A prohibition of roosters is acceptable for the sake of noise control and citizens keeping poultry should be expected to maintain sanitary conditions to limit offensive odors that may be deemed unacceptable by neighbors within their vicinity.